Craig Kelly (Hughes, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I'll start by picking up on a few points made by the member for Fenner. He said, 'If you repeat a lie often enough, it becomes the truth.' Talk about pot-kettle-black. Here we have a member of the opposition that ran the 'Mediscare' line, the greatest deception in an election in Australia's history. That lie was repeated over and over again, so much so that it will go down in folklore. In fact, thankfully, this parliament has passed legislation, agreed to by the opposition, such that, should they engage in such deceptive conduct again—impersonating a federal government agency—it would be illegal. We wait with bated breath on this side of the House to see what campaign our opponents will come up with at the next election, what story they will tell, and repeat over and over and over again—an untruth to try to again con the Australian public. But I think this time the Australian public will be awake.

When it comes to the issue of corporate tax, one of the most stunning revelations this week was when one of the members of the opposition asked a question in question time about the reduction in the corporate tax rate and asked, 'Where will the money come from?' This is a question we often ask on this side of the House when Labor have their big spending plans. But this was in relation to a reduction in the corporate tax rate. It shows the fundamental difference between the ideologies on this side of the House and on that side of the House.

On this side of the chamber, we understand that the size of the economic pie of our nation, the wealth that we have, is not fixed. The wealth that we have can shrink or it can grow, depending on the incentives that we put in the system. It depends on the hard work of those Australians who vote for us. How big that economic pie grows depends on their risk-taking and their entrepreneurial efforts. The opposition think that the size of that economic pie is fixed and it's just a matter of cutting it up. They don't understand that the very reason that we are reducing the corporate rate of tax in this nation is to grow the size of the economic pie.

This is not just a theory. This has happened every single time in our nation's history when we have reduced that corporate rate of tax. When Peter Costello was the Treasurer, he reduced the corporate rate of tax from 36 per cent to 30 per cent. According to the opposition's ideology, or what they say now, that should have cost the Treasury money. But exactly the opposite happened. The reduction in the corporate tax rate actually resulted in the Treasury getting more revenue in, not only in gross terms but as a percentage of GDP. So we grew the pie and we even made the corporate tax slice of that pie bigger, at a smaller rate. It wasn't only under Peter Costello. Exactly the same thing happened when Paul Keating was the Treasurer. Again, Paul Keating understood. He reduced the corporate rate of tax in this nation and—surprise, surprise!—what happened? The actual number of dollars flowing to the Treasury increased, the economy grew and job creation grew.

This is what we understand on this side of the House. It amazes me that we have members of the opposition wanting to simply run class warfare rhetoric to try to argue against corporate tax cuts. Almost every OECD nation this century has understood this and has lowered the corporate rate of tax, with a few exceptions, including Australia. Even though we have had a magnificent performance from this coalition government, with more than a million new jobs created, we face a future, going forward, where we must get that rate of corporate tax down to be internationally competitive. (Time expired)

Debate adjourned.

See this speech in context